While the dialogue ranged from global water shortages and America’s infrastructure woes to job creation and imposing user fees on water usage, one thing was certain: increased education and awareness on water-related issues are needed at all levels, according to the symposium attendees.
“Most of our water infrastructure is underground, where the public doesn’t see it,” Trottenberg said.
“Water is the oil of the 21st century,” Otto said.
Robert Wilkins, president of Danfoss Inc., helped frame the discussion during his opening remarks. “Today, the U.S. is approaching a threshold,” he said. “Between 1900 and 2000, our population increased over 300 percent and became acutely urban and suburban. At this present rate of growth, we will reach 400 million by 2050. And this demographic transformation is being conducted on a water infrastructure largely designed in another era and for another era.”
The population explosion, both in the U.S. and abroad, will put tremendous stress on global water supplies – 99.23 percent of which are unusable for most humans, according to Shannon. By 2030, he predicts that many U.S. cities – Atlanta, Chicago and Denver are prime examples -- will see “massive increases in water usage.”
Shannon added that, as U.S. water supplies are dwindling, contamination of those supplies has increased. As a result, there’s a corresponding need for more water treatment, adding additional stress to an already overburdened system – a system that has relied heavily on financial support from state and local governments.
“The federal government’s commitment to infrastructure has been declining since the 1950s and ‘60s,” Trottenberg noted. “We need to increase our investment in infrastructure across the board – water, transportation, energy.”
That point was seconded by the EPA’s Bastian. He noted that, since the Clean Water Act became federal law in 1972, the U.S. has successfully cleaned up many water supplies.
Shannon said the best technological innovations are coming from Asia, Europe and the Middle East – not the U.S. He believes U.S. scientists and companies can successfully provide solutions to America’s water challenges. He also believes the federal government can be a catalyst for innovation.
“The U.S. needs to regain the innovation and competitive lead,” Shannon said.
That can be accomplished, symposium attendees agreed, by making water management a high national priority – in the same way that energy has become a top national priority in the past year.